School of Education and Allied Professions celebrates centennial

The celebration will honor the many professionals who have left Miami to work in all corners of educational research and practice.

Known by various names over the years, the school was founded in 1902 as the first education school in Ohio. "From the beginning, [it] changed the character of the university," said Kate Rousmaniere (educational leadership), who has written a short history of the school.

The school admitted the first significant number of women students and attracted Miami’s first students of color: In 1905, Nelly Craig was the university’s first African American to earn a teaching degree.

The school further changed campus by introducing summer classes for teachers, sending students to work in rural and urban environments, founding the McGuffey Laboratory School in 1910 and offering a diverse curriculum that has grown to include subjects such as health, family studies and media.

"By the 1960s and ‘70s, the school enrolled well over half of the graduate students in the university," said Rousmaniere, "including educational and administrative students in the university’s first doctoral program."

Barbara Schirmer, dean, said commemorative events include an exhibition at the McGuffey Museum on the history of the school and a Distinguished Lecture Series. "To culminate our yearlong celebration there will be a reunion of the McGuffey Lab School students, faculty and friends during alumni weekend in June 2003," she said.

A Web site has been developed with archival photos from the school’s history, visit digital.lib.muohio.edu/seap.